“What was it?” coaxed Amy teasingly.  “Come, Betty dear, tell us what he said.”

“Goodness!” cried Betty crossly, getting redder every moment, and knowing it, “didn’t I tell you the censor crossed it out?”

“You know very well that wasn’t what we meant,” cried Mollie, with a frightful frown.  “Amy was referring to the sentiments on both sides of the censored part.”

“Oh well, you could hardly expect,” Betty was beginning, when Amy, who had been peeping over her shoulder clapped a hand to her mouth too late to check a sudden exclamation.

“Oh girls!” she cried gleefully.  “What I saw!  What I saw!”

“Amy Blackford,” Betty’s eyes were black with real anger now, “I don’t know how you could do such a thing.  I didn’t think it of you!”

Not only Amy, but the other girls were frightened by this sudden change in their usually good-natured Little Captain, and Amy hastened to make amends.

“I’m sorry, Betty dear,” she said, flushing with real shame beneath Betty’s accusing eyes.  “I didn’t mean it—­truly I didn’t.  And I’ll never do it again, never!”

“Oh, all right,” replied Betty, controlling herself with an effort and turning back to the letter.  “I’m sorry I said anything, Amy, if you didn’t mean it.”

There was a little constrained silence after that, no one knowing just how to clear the rather electric atmosphere.  They went on reading absorbedly, only the crackling of the paper as they turned a page breaking the deep stillness of the room.

It was Betty who finally relieved the tension.

“If that doesn’t sound just like Roy,” she said, and they looked up expectantly, relieved at the naturalness of her tone.  “Allen says that he—­Roy, that is—­was very much impressed with his first sight of a camouflaged ship.  Said he had devised a fine scheme of killing off the German army in a hurry.  He’d disguise himself as a piece of Limburger cheese, and when the Huns came running to him, he’d simply give them a gentle little tap on the head.”

“Humph,” snorted Mollie contemptuously, “how long do you suppose he’d be able to keep that up?”

“He says they’d never suspect the truth,” Betty chuckled.  “They’d simply think it was a particularly husky piece of cheese!”

CHAPTER XXIII

THE MIRACLE

It was only a few days later that the wonderful, the incredible thing happened!

The girls were returning from a rather hurried excursion to a near-by town when they came face to face with the motorcyclist.  His motor had evidently stalled, and he was standing in the middle of the road tinkering with it.

Paralyzed by the suddenness of the thing, the girls just stood still and stared until the man, evidently feeling their eyes upon him, turned slowly about and faced them.

He seemed to recognize them immediately, for his first look of bewilderment was followed quickly by one of fear, and with an abrupt motion he turned back to his machine.